listen all y'all. check out the new green day album, american idiot. i'm going as far as to say that this is their best album yet.



but i still can't really get into the song "boulevard of broken dreams". when i first heard it i thought of nickelback then some guy wrote that it's an oasis song with billie joe's vocals on instead of the gallaghers.



but still. STILL. this album kills. mike dirnt and tre cool even sing lead for a bit.



listen to the whole album. just take an hour off and listen to it. yes you heard me right. an hour. its a concept album so just listen to it and if you can read the lyrics at the same time too. there's someplace on the web where you can sample the whole album for free. so if you're really stoked go search for that.

what the dilly-yo.



for all those who actually even wondered about what i was doing this past week or so, check here to see a lot of pictures, but not much narrative. and if you like things a little bit tougher, go find the link 'twinkle' on the left column. i was going to post pictures but most of them are there already so i didn't want to contribute to the mass garbage dump that is the internet.



anyway i got attacked by another type of bird during the past week! seagulls! yay another one to add to my list.



and other stuff i did but not represented pictorially:

- played video games overnight for two nights in sam's place.

- took naps in the day. (wasting the good weather of these few days)

- watched episodes of futurama, simpsons, a night at the roxbury which is a really shite movie, a bad pirated version of fahrenheit 9/11 and batman the animated series which sam passed me and that is thumbs up.

- thought about doing schoolwork.



aight, today's a fine ass day again and i'm going to log up some driving hours later. don't suck the ice if it's cloudy.

oh yeah i just found out from mr pinto the director that the uni charges 2000 dollars for the use of the school theatre technician for productions.



holy fucking shit. i'm doing a job that pays 2000 frickin' dollars!



knowing that makes me want more than just having my name in the program.



i think i will have some of that pizza i've been politely declining that they get every night for dinner before the show.

ok so here's the lowdown.



i got attacked by a duck today.



now it may seem like i get attacked by birds a lot if you guys can recall the first semester i was here i was attacked by a magpie. that mofo of a bird. but this time it was reasonable.



because there are ducklings in school again!



the last time there were ducklings was a year ago. and they hung out at the moat surrounding the library in front of the library cafe. and the ducklings would waddle about in the outdoor cafe area looking for scraps of food people either gave them or dropped accidentally. and the ducklings would run about under your feet and tables and chairs. how they all managed to survive without getting squashed accidentally by a foot or a bag i don't know.



but anyway the new ducklings hang out at the reflection pool now so you don't get them running about in the library cafe. which is kinda sad. i saw them two days ago and today i thought i'd go take a closer look. and so the father and mother duck were around too of course. and when i got too close the father duck became all menacing like and lowered his head at me and hissed at me with his beak open. so i was like whoah is that duck gonna attack me like i think he is? and the boid just went for it. and flapped his wings and lunged at my legs. but i just let the guy do his thing, i mean he's got to do his job in front of his lady and all. and eventually after he made his point known he went back to looking tough again around the family. so i kept my distance after that. i don't wanna make him lose face or anything with his family around. what would the ducklings think?



anyway so just now after the play, i went over to the reflection pool again, to look at the ducklings and also cos the convocation ceremony is on almost every night for this week now so far and there were a lot of people there. the graduates don't look very happy though. it's the relatives who do. but that's another boring story. and one boring story a post is already a bit too much i think.



so anyway i was thinking the ducks must be like what the fuck are all these goddamn humans doing here in the middle of the night. and you can bet your ass that father duck was having a helluva busy night attacking any sucka who comes too close. that guy was flapping and being intimidating at everyone who came near. no rest for him tonight. i decided to risk my life and take a few pictures of the lovely family. most of the pictures turned out pretty blurry cos it was night and there wasn't much light. and to be honest, i'm still shaking from my encounter with mr tough-guy drake in the afternoon. the rest of the ducks around the pool were having the time of their life scuttling about the lawn eating scraps running through the crowd. it was quite a sight. the kids around the place were having fun chasing them ducks around too. anyway here are two pictures of the family.







so here's the tough guy keeping a look out and all the ducklings hiding under the mother, or just keeping warm. but i'd think it's more for protection from the hordes of humans about the place. looks like the mother's got a huge furry foot or she's wearing furry bedroom slippers or something. anyway, at one point, one duckling popped out to have a looksee. must've been boring all squashed up under there with all your siblings. i think there's about 9 of them under there. though this lady that came to talk to us was like i think it's 6. and she was all sceptical when i said i think there are 9. she was all like "this gentleman reckons that there are 9 of them under there!" to her husband. this gentleman. what a riot. her husband wasn't too interested. he was too engrossed in getting more (free) wine for himself and her. if they'd been any nicer they'd have offered me some. then maybe i would have mustered up the courage to go closer to the ducks.









and here you can see that the dude's noticed me and is staring me down. i damn near jumped into the goddamn pool when i saw him giving me the evil eye on the little monitor screen on my digicam. yeah that's why it's a little blurry. don't knock it alrite. you see how near you dare to go near a protective animal. the only reason why i managed to get any pictures at all was cos he was too busy attacking all them other innocents who sauntered too close by. yeah so after this, i just hung about having fun watching him attack various people and saying "waattchhh ouuutttt". if you think that's a really boring thing to do, you're mistaken fool. cos there isn't anything more interesting than watching a duck attacking people and then seeing people admonishing the fella late at night in school.



ok yeah well this post is really too long for such a mundane topic. so it's gonna end now.



i think i'll drop by to look at the little duckies again tomorrow.



ps: by the way, if you're even remotely concerned as to whether i'm alrite from the attack. i am. my legs are fine cos i was wearing jeans. anyway, the sucka would've gotten a beakful of my leg hair and choke or something if i was wearing berms. so it's better for him that he couldn't injure me.



i hope i can sleep well tonight. stuff like this gives you nightmares you know.

well i guess you should have expected it. here are some photos of the production i'm doing lighting for this week. two comedies by the italian dramatic society. one's called gli imbianchini non hanno ricordi (houespainters have no memories). and the other's called non tutti i ladri vengono per nuocere (the virtuous burglar). and i'm slowly picking up some italian phrases. so watch out pasta mania.







right so here's the basic setup. this is computer lighting board sitting on top of the ancient manual lighting board. this is just what you use to control every light in the theatre. that tv monitor's connected to the computer lighting board so that you can see which lights are on and what power level they're at at the moment. and those pieces of paper are the scripts for the production and my notes. this is at the back of the theatre so i'm looking down at the stage and there's one of the actresses reading her script on stage. and that's my bottle of water down in the corner.







and here's the bigger picture. the left of the chair is part of the ancient manual lighting board. i heard you don't even see stuff like this in modern theatres anymore so i guess i'm pretty lucky to even be able to use it. but of course everyone uses the computer lighting board instead. it's much easier. the mass of wires on the right. that's where we plug in all the lights to the main electricity board. it's really hard to explain how it all works. and it gets confusing even when you're there doing it. so i'm not going to try explaining.







and this is the main circuit board that powers basically everything in the theatre i think. and look around it you see lots of grafitti and my own attempts to etch myself into dolphin theatre history. my name's on the wall somewhere else too but i claimed that little spot at the bottom there as mine.







and here's the cast and jamie the stage manager on stage doing some pre-show warm-up. stuff like vocal exercises and physical stuff. well it's stage warm-up stuff. it's quite fun to watch. that blue screen is from the projector up in the biobox. oh yeah. the biobox? it's what we call the control room. that's where i'm situated during the shows. anyway, projector projects the subtitles so that morons like me will understand the proceedings.







and here's a bit from housepainters have no memories. these guys come in with a long ladder and take turns to be on stage. left right left right the ladder goes through the doorways. and different people appear holding the ends. but that's just the start of the play. it gets more interesting.







and here's a bit from the virtuous burglar. notice the differences in set design and the lighting. even though the plays are in italian they're pretty funny. i mean i find bits funny and i don't even understand italian. well for now anyway.



ok so that's it. italian play. woohoo hurrah.

right. just spent the afternoon till an hour ago in the theatre again.



this time it's not so bad. i think i really like hanging out in the theatre. it's kinda like my territory of some sorts since i'm one of the ridiculously few lighting people in school. and if you're wondering how ridiculous. there are only 4 people who do lighting in school now. one's part of the uni dramatic society, so she is permanently doing stuff for them. one has graduated last semester, and he comes back to do lighting in the theatre cos he's got the most experience. and then you have me and mindy, who are seriously the only two people around you can get to do lighting for any production in the theatre. if you get the head technician, you have to pay the uni. so student lighting people = free. and you only get to be a student lighting person if the head technician, john doyle, trains you in his lighting course.



so i think it's pretty reasonable to say that the dolphin theatre is kinda like my territory.



anyway this time around with them italian folk, it ain't bad at all. cos i'm the sole lighting person around and the lighting operator, i'm treated pretty alrite. well i mean, the other times the the director's been my tutor or i've been just the technical person who rigs the lights but not operate them. so maybe actually being the operator gives you some status. but anyway i'm the only lighting person for this italian play so i am THE person to go to for all their lighting needs.



it's like today i was thinking, hey i'm quite big shot around here. i call the directors by their first names, cos that's how i got to know them and one of them told me to call him louie or whatever. his name's luciano. luciano pinto. and the other one's theresa or teresa and some italian surname i can't remember. something with a bunch of "r"s in it. everyone calls them mr pinto or mrs "rrrrr" or senor or senora and i'm the sucka that goes erm teresa do you want. louie! yeah i've got stature around here. ha.



the people seem nicer too. which would make me conclude that italians, or speakers of italian are nicer, but i'm not gonna generalise.



and what's more, there's hardly any lighting cues for this play at all. i'm gonna bring my notes or a magazine to read. i'm gonna be doing a lot of sitting about doing nothing during the run next week.



yeah so basically this post was to let you know how fucking important i am.



i hope they print my name in the goddamn program. it's procedure but still i always worry they don't. it's the only recognition i get. goddammit i'll get all mafiosi on their asses if they don't. i'm not scared of the godfather.

and just when i thought i made it to the clear.



i am now the lighting man for the italian dramatic society's plays for next week. and it's a run from tuesday till sunday. man oh man. and i'm gonna be solo bodoh for the whole thing.



and it's in italian. even more chance for me to miss the cues.



well at least my italian should be pretty alrite by the end of next week. i'll be cold ordering italian food in classy italian and all that. be impressing all them chicks wit my foreign talents.



sigh. what chicks.



anyway.



the set's pretty nice. think i shall take my camera on down one of these days or nights to take a few shots. never really worked with a set like this before.



right i'm off to take a nap or something. i'm bushwhacked. been climbing about rigging lights the whole afternoon. well not really the whole afternoon. but that shit ain't exactly R and R.



arrivafuckindeci you louts.

yeah screamfeeder was good. yeah! i'm liking them more and more. maybe even get the new album. singles album. should be good. too many lps and eps in their discography to start to collect. especially since i'm here and my pirating skillz are limited to when i'm in singapore for the moment.



the other band goldenmean was...ok. they were consistent.



anyway it was good. the sound was good. wondered how come gigs in this singapore always got this very distinct singapore gig sound. especially the bass guitar. too bad electrico wasn't there. was thinking of slipping screamfeeder a note to pass to electrico when they meet in melbourne. something along the lines of "why you never come perth???". one fan isn't going to make them come here but at least they'll know they're missed.



listening to franz ferdinand now. got yu to get it for me. and it's good.



yeah. love a day of good music.



makes me feel good.



the cheap beer made it better too. yeah.

screamfeeder is here again. and i'm gonna check them out in the tav tomorrow.



the worst thing is. electrico is touring with them and they're not coming to perth with them!!! they're only going to melbourne.



why why why electrico.



come to perth please electrico. the suns too.



anyway if you're interested, check out new electrico link on the left. and you can listen to the whole album here.

hey wassup. i should jump on the bandwagon but just go to here and here to see a moron picture of me and a morose gene.